BLU-RAY REVIEW

New Daughter, The

Featured In Issue 148, May/June 2010

Picture4
SoundNR
WSR Score3.5
Basic Information on new release titles is posted as soon as titles are announced. Once reviewed, additional data is added to the database.
(Studio/Distributor):
Anchor Bay Entertainment
(Catalog Number):
BD2165
(MPAA Rating):
PG-13
(Rating Reason):
(Retail Price):
$34.98
(Disc Type):
Single Side, Single Layer (BD-25)
(Widescreen Edition):
Yes
(Full Screen Edition):
No
(Running Time In Minutes):
108
(Color Type):
Color With B/W Sequences
(Chaptered/Scene Access):
Yes
(Closed Captioned):
Yes
(Regional Coding):
Not Indicated
(Theatrical Year):
2009
(Theatrical Release):
Yes
(Direct-To-Video Release):
No
(Disc Release Date):
05/18/10
(THX® Digitally Mastered):
No
(Director):
Luis Berdejo
(Screenplay/Written By):
(Story):
(Music):
(Director Of Photography):
(Production Designer):
(Visual Effects):
(Costume Designer):
(Editor):
(Supervising Sound Editors):
(Re-Recording Mixers):
(Executive Producers):
(Co-Producers):
(Producers):
(Academy Awards):
(Principal Photography):
(Theatrical Aspect Ratio):
(Measured Disc Aspect Ratio):
(Disc Soundtrack):
Dolby Digital 5.1
(Theatrical Sound):
(Theatrical Re-Issue Soundtrack):
(DTS Bit Rate):
(Dolby Digital Bit Rate):
(Additional Languages):
(French Language):
(Spanish Language):
(Chinese Language):
(Subtitles):
(Cantonese Language):
(Mandarin Language):
(Japanese Language):
(Italian Language):
(German Language):
(Portuguese Language):

Based on the short story written by John Connolly, "The New Daughter" follows the James family, as John (Costner) tries to rebuild his family after a painful divorce. John has his hands full raising his youngest child Sam (Griffith) and especially his adolescent daughter Lousia (Baquero). As Louisia's troubling behavior continues, far beyond the average teen angst and frustrations, John begins doubting his parental abilities. But when events around the James household start taking on an increasingly mysterious nature, John realizes that his family may be in mortal danger. (Gary Reber)

Special features include commentary with Director Luis Berdejo, a behind-the-scenes featurette (SD 10:53), 10 deleted scenes (SD 22:25), and the theatrical trailer.

The 2.35:1 1080p VC-1 picture exhibits an overall natural appearance, with well-balanced contrast that shifts between bright daylight scenes and dark night scenes. The night scenes reveal good shadow delineation and set a spooky mysterious mood. Blacks are deep and solid, and hues are perfectly natural without exaggeration. Fleshtones appear accurate and display varying complexion hues well. Resolution is generally excellent and revealing of fine facial features and object textures. Overall, this is an effective visual experience, though, the shadows make it difficult to make out detail. Though this is probably intended to enhance the horrific goings-on. (Gary Reber)

The non-compressed PCM 5.1-channel soundtrack is superb, especially with respect to the dramatic thunder and lightening storms that convey a chilling experience. The downpour of rain is impressively real sounding. The music score is spread wide and deep and strongly penetrates the surround channels. The fidelity is excellent and reveals fine instrument timbres. Dialogue is, at times, nicely integrated spatially but at other times compromised with ADR. Atmospheric effects are dimensionally portrayed, and certain sound effects are dramatically directionalized throughout the soundfield, for an effective holosonic® effect. At times below 25 Hz bass is extremely intense in the .1 LFE channel, which enhances the spooky mysterious mood. This is a well-produced soundtrack that delivers the suspense and horror. (Gary Reber)